Honestly, this is a byproduct of a bigger problem – abandonware being normalized. What the petition REALLY should be is for games that are no longer published, or no longer sold to fall into public domain under the old copyright laws. There are old games that we don’t even know who owns the rights to that cannot be recreated or reissued legally because of it. There are old programs for old hardware like this too.
This can, and should, be extended to all media. If you are not making it available any more, after 20 years, it is public domain. This is what the original, pre-Disney screwed Copyright used to work like. Bring it back.
xUnionBuster
Sorry to burst the bubble but this will have zero impact. Even if it’s debated, which it won’t be, no one will turn up because this is frankly (and rightly) so far down the priority list of issues you’d need scuba gear to see it.
I know this subreddit is mostly teenagers so I’ll just quickly explain that while this may be important to you and in gaming communities it’s actually completely unimportant against a backdrop of skyrocketing debt and spending, record tax burdens, migration, political rebellions, foreign policy etc. which all actually are important issues that they are having to deal with
Dimka1498
The EU petition is 150k from reaching the goal. Join the fight!
John-333
Doubt this’ll get anywhere, but I did my part.
H0vis
This is meaningless. Might as well be written in Swahili for all the sense it will make to dipshit British MPs.
Vega5529
If we didn’t leave the EU stopkillinggames might have been fully signed months ago
JohnSmithDogFace
The government isn’t obligated to and almost certainly won’t debate it in Parliament. No petition to Parliament in modern UK history has ever effected any change. Almost all are never debated. A few are debated and rejected. Sorry to be a downer, but people need to know that petitions are a clever deceit by central government to make us feel empowered, without giving us any power at all. Real change is achieved by voting and direct action.
ExplanationAway5571
Now they will stop spamming this in all subs?
katheb
Gogogo!
wozniattack
If you’re in the EU, and UK please support the movements. Preservation and ownership is only getting worse.
A recent study into the availability of [classic video games](https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/topics/retro) appears to confirm what we all suspected: the vast majority of video games more than a decade old are pretty much impossible to find in their original forms, due to a mixture of technical challenges, licensing and commercial factors.
The [Game Availability Study](https://zenodo.org/record/7996492) published in partnership by the Video Game History Foundation and the Software Preservation Network found that 87% of video games released in the US before 2010 – the report’s benchmark for “classic”, which just caused me to crumble into dust – simply aren’t in print anymore.
megadonkeyx
if its abandoned then its by default open source. * would be a good law
Reddit_is_Fake_
keep voting and spreading the message because some votes will be invalid!
TheocraticAtheist
I signed ages ago. Glad it’s picking up steam.
It’s a shame that YouTube drama caused it get over the finish line but it is what it is.
Game preservation is important. As well as consumer rights.
To think, Pirate Software almost ruined it.
Clbull
The difference between our petitions site and the failed Obama Administration’s We The People petition site is that petitions need to go to Parliamentary debate after they hit the 100k threshold. The Obama Administration on the other hand rejected a lot of petitions that got popular just because it didn’t fit with their ideology, i.e. legalizing marijuana.
I also think with the hammering they’ve had in the press lately over UC and PIP reforms, the Starmer government may want an easy win.
ilikeburgir
Keep going to offset the people that input incorrect info. Same for the UE one.
Visible_Aether
Big W for gamers and consumers all around. Its not the end but its a great first step
17 Comments
We did it!!!!
Now it will be debated in parliament
Honestly, this is a byproduct of a bigger problem – abandonware being normalized. What the petition REALLY should be is for games that are no longer published, or no longer sold to fall into public domain under the old copyright laws. There are old games that we don’t even know who owns the rights to that cannot be recreated or reissued legally because of it. There are old programs for old hardware like this too.
This can, and should, be extended to all media. If you are not making it available any more, after 20 years, it is public domain. This is what the original, pre-Disney screwed Copyright used to work like. Bring it back.
Sorry to burst the bubble but this will have zero impact. Even if it’s debated, which it won’t be, no one will turn up because this is frankly (and rightly) so far down the priority list of issues you’d need scuba gear to see it.
I know this subreddit is mostly teenagers so I’ll just quickly explain that while this may be important to you and in gaming communities it’s actually completely unimportant against a backdrop of skyrocketing debt and spending, record tax burdens, migration, political rebellions, foreign policy etc. which all actually are important issues that they are having to deal with
The EU petition is 150k from reaching the goal. Join the fight!
Doubt this’ll get anywhere, but I did my part.
This is meaningless. Might as well be written in Swahili for all the sense it will make to dipshit British MPs.
If we didn’t leave the EU stopkillinggames might have been fully signed months ago
The government isn’t obligated to and almost certainly won’t debate it in Parliament. No petition to Parliament in modern UK history has ever effected any change. Almost all are never debated. A few are debated and rejected. Sorry to be a downer, but people need to know that petitions are a clever deceit by central government to make us feel empowered, without giving us any power at all. Real change is achieved by voting and direct action.
Now they will stop spamming this in all subs?
Gogogo!
If you’re in the EU, and UK please support the movements. Preservation and ownership is only getting worse.
A recent study into the availability of [classic video games](https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/topics/retro) appears to confirm what we all suspected: the vast majority of video games more than a decade old are pretty much impossible to find in their original forms, due to a mixture of technical challenges, licensing and commercial factors.
The [Game Availability Study](https://zenodo.org/record/7996492) published in partnership by the Video Game History Foundation and the Software Preservation Network found that 87% of video games released in the US before 2010 – the report’s benchmark for “classic”, which just caused me to crumble into dust – simply aren’t in print anymore.
if its abandoned then its by default open source. * would be a good law
keep voting and spreading the message because some votes will be invalid!
I signed ages ago. Glad it’s picking up steam.
It’s a shame that YouTube drama caused it get over the finish line but it is what it is.
Game preservation is important. As well as consumer rights.
To think, Pirate Software almost ruined it.
The difference between our petitions site and the failed Obama Administration’s We The People petition site is that petitions need to go to Parliamentary debate after they hit the 100k threshold. The Obama Administration on the other hand rejected a lot of petitions that got popular just because it didn’t fit with their ideology, i.e. legalizing marijuana.
I also think with the hammering they’ve had in the press lately over UC and PIP reforms, the Starmer government may want an easy win.
Keep going to offset the people that input incorrect info. Same for the UE one.
Big W for gamers and consumers all around. Its not the end but its a great first step